Part of me realized I didn’t really need Benson to tell me what I was. The evidence was as clear as day. But I couldn’t stop from trembling as my lips split open, “What am I?” I breathed around my words.
“Lizzie,” he considered me as he shifted his head to the side, “You are suffering from an angel infection.”
I… blinked.
I’d been expecting it, of course I’d been expecting it. The wings and light were a dead giveaway. The little part about having an infection, though, that made no goddamn sense.
I shifted hard, almost bucking. “Infection? You mean I’m an angel, don’t you? I’m an… angel….” I trailed off as I started to appreciate what that could mean.
He arched an eyebrow, and it was such an oddly normal move that it snapped my attention away from the enormity of the situation. For like half a second, then the truly impressed look locked in his gaze made me swallow.
“Technically, I think you will find, Lizzie, it’s classed as an infection. Just as vampiriety is.”
I began to shake my head.
I didn’t get the chance to finish. Before I could find out what was happening, a car screeched around the corner, its sirens blaring on full.
I’d had one hell of a sensory overload tonight, and I gritted my teeth, jerked my head to the side, and pretty much hid behind my hands as none other than Detective Cortez rode his car up the pavement and stopped in a screech of tires and burning rubber.
He threw himself out of the driver’s seat and lurched forward. Just when I thought he’d go for his gun, he locked me in a look. A crazy compassionate look. A crazy worried look. A crazy relieved look. Exactly the kind of looks Cortez would give to somebody he cared about. Not little old me.
“You’re alive,” he said, undeniable relief shaking through his voice. “Christ, Lizzie, what happened?” He jerked his head up and stared at the top of the building, then shifted his gaze down to look around him. It didn’t take long for his eyes to lock on a relatively inane pile of dirt.
But it wasn’t dirt, was it?
It was Van Edgerton.
I started to lose my balance, and I would have fallen to my knees had Benson not taken that exact moment to shift forward and shore up my stance with his ever-reliable grip.
“You didn’t kill him, Lizzie. He is dead, however, so you have satisfied the terms of your contract. But your conscience is clear,” he said in the kind of undeniable tone that could only be used when someone was telling the truth.
My heart, which had been threatening to jerk from my throat, suddenly stilled.
I made a face.
Detective Cortez ran his fingers through the remains of Theodore’s ashes, dusted his fingers on his pants, and shook his head. “I can’t say I’m sorry. That bastard was responsible for more crimes than any other vampire in the country. Hell of a way to go. How did he die exactly?”
We both jerked our gazes toward Benson. I was certain he was going to tell the truth. Admit to Cortez that it wasn’t a hell of a way to go – that it was the exact opposite. Heavenly retribution.
But as Benson shifted forward, locked me in his gaze for a single second, then nodded toward Cortez, I realized he was going to keep that particular truth to himself. “Van Edgerton fell off the roof.”
Cortez winced. “You serious? That’s what finally got him? A faulty railing or something?”
“Or something,” Benson agreed.
Suddenly, there was a screech of tires, and an extremely familiar engine roared down the street. The beast.
Mr. Marvelous rode the car up onto the pavement, almost collecting the three of us.
Benson shifted me back with a firm hand as he tugged a finger into his collar, loosened it, and shot Mr. Marvelous a pointed look through the window.
Marvelous threw himself out of the car. Before I had any idea what was happening, he jerked forward, wrapped a hand around my back, and gave me a quick squeeze of a hug. “Lizzie, boy am I glad you’re alive.” He shifted away, patted me on the back, and grinned.
I can’t say working for Mr. Marvelous was particularly fun. But it was gratifying. I’d solved a murder, and I knew instinctively Susan Smith could now rest in peace. We could take the scrap of soul back from Frank, and she would be able to live everafter.
So I smiled as I nodded. “Thanks for being concerned about me.”
“Concerned? I was searching the entire city. Kid, you’ve been gone for two days, and the shop just isn’t the same without you.”
I couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. “I’ve barely been there a week.”
“Lizzie Luck,” Marvelous spread his hands wide and gestured like a salesman, “You leave a lasting impression.”
I blinked. And I made the mistake of swiveling my gaze first to Cortez and then to Benson.
Both were looking at me in the kind of way that suggested, yeah, me, simple Lizzie Luck, left an impression.
Benson cleared his throat. “I suggest it’s time we clear the evidence and leave. The mayor will be quite displeased if we block up the main artery of the city.”
On the word evidence, my world came crashing down around me. Because I remembered what had happened. The anger that had gripped me as I’d burned through the casino, fighting Theodore and locking Frank in an impenetrable barrier of light.
Instantly I brought my hands up and crammed them over my mouth.
Benson jerked his gaze toward me. “It’s been a particularly long night for you, Lizzie, I suggest you go home and get some rest.”
“I can’t. The casino—”
Benson stepped in smoothly and cleared his throat. “While there was an altercation within the casino,” he appeared to pick his words carefully, “It is vampire business,” he said, a flash of his canines appearing over his lips.
Cortez frowned. “What exactly happened in there?”
Benson simply shrugged. “As I said, unfortunately, it is vampire business.”
Cortez ticked an eyebrow up, but appeared to have no other option other than to shrug. “Fine, vampire business,” he agreed. Then almost immediately he returned his attention to me. “Lizzie, how the hell did you get away from Theodore?”
I gulped. Nervously.
Benson cleared his throat once more.
Mr. Marvelous let out an irritated chuckle. “You can’t tell us that was vampire business, too.”
William Benson pushed one hand into his pocket and smiled. And you guessed it, he showed his teeth again. “For now, it is vampire business. My agents will have to go in and see exactly what Theodore was doing.”
Suddenly, something slammed into me. A memory. “What’s the 12th rule, or amendment, or regulation, or something?” I stuttered as I pushed my words out as fast as I could.
Everybody stopped. They all took stiff breaths and held them in their chests. “You mean the Regulation 12,” Benson said in a low, unrecognizable tone.
I nodded my head.
“Why would you mention this?”
“Because Frank – one of the vampires in there,” I spoke around a massive swallow, “He said that Theodore broke Regulation 12. That’s why Susan Smith was killed. She found out, and Frank killed her on Theodore’s orders.”
Nobody moved, shifted, breathed, or in any other way acted like ordinary human beings, even if two of them weren’t technically ordinary human beings.
Point was, all three of them were riveted to the spot in what was unquestionably shock and a smattering of fear.
“… What’s Regulation 12?” I asked hesitantly.
“You sure?” Cortez turned on me.” You sure that’s what he said? Regulation 12? Not 11, not 10?”
“That’s what she said, then that’s what she heard,” Marvelous crowed as he backed me up.
I cleared my throat carefully. “Is this serious?”
He nodded.
I deflated.
More than anything, I wanted to go home and crumple into bed. And then… digest the fact I was te
chnically an angel. And that, that was technically an infection.
My head started to swim again. Before I could pitch head-first into the gutter, I felt Benson’s light touch on my shoulder. “Go home now, Lizzie.”
“But there’s too much to do–” I began.
“It will be done in the morning.”
“But I need to… find out what I—”
“I’ll tell you in the morning. You have my word.”
His word.
As he let his gaze rove over me, you guessed it, he held me in his hands. The ghostly grasp of his eyes wrapped around me. I felt warm, safe. The horror of the night flitted away from me as I allowed myself to slip closer into the warm embrace of his eyes.
“Go to sleep, go home. In the morning, I’ll explain everything.”
I turned. I walked back to the car with Marvelous.
He chatted my ear off, asking every detail of what happened.
I answered him with half a mind, careful to share only certain details. The rest of my mind? Oh, that locked on Benson. And it locked on tomorrow morning. When, apparently, he’d tell me everything and this journey would continue….
The end of Angel: Private Eye Book One. Angel: Private Eye Book Two is currently available.
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Angel: Private Eye Book One Page 15
